Sonic's Dangerous Summer
by Zany the Nerd
Summary: Sonic just wanted to enjoy summer with his buddy Tails, but when Knuckles breaks into the fox's lab and steals an emerald, that plan goes out the window. Now forced to team up with Shadow, it's a race to gather all the emeralds and find out just what is wrong with Knuckles.
1. Workshop Break In

Ah summer, a time for warm breezes, blue skies, and relaxation. It was these things that made Sonic the Hedgehog enjoy this part of the year so much. Currently he was spending some of the season bunking at Tails' place. The two had enjoyed watching late night movies, going outside to fly kites, and taking leisurely spins out in the Tornado. Yes, their summer was certainly going good so far.

A knock on the door pulled the cobalt hedgehog out of his musings.

"Yo, Tails, dinner's here!" Sonic yelled, jumping up from the couch and hurrying to the front door.

"I'll be up in a moment!" came the muffled reply from the workshop.

Sonic simply shrugged. When it came to the young genius' affinity for tinkering with things, a 'moment' could last anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. Not that Sonic could complain. He was notorious for losing track of time when he was out on a run.

Opening the door, Sonic looked up at the delivery man holding their steaming box of pizza in his hands. It was no chili dog, but it certainly smelled good!

"Y-you're Sonic the Hedgehog!" the man stuttered with widening eyes.

"And here I thought your line was supposed to be 'I have a delivery for a Mr. Miles Prower," Sonic joked, rubbing a finger under the bridge of his nose. He was use to the fanboying. No matter which corner of the world he traveled to, people knew of his adventures.

"O-of course! I'm sorry! It's just, this is my first night on the job and they told me that you were sometimes at this address, but I wasn't sure if it was some joke! But you're here!" he rambled on, "I'm a huge fan, sir! I follow you on the news and everything! W-would you sign my hat, please?"

"Sure thing, but no more of this sir stuff. Sonic's just fine." The speedster laughed, "But I don't have a pen on me."

The delivery man quickly shifted the box to one hand as he dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out a writing instrument, "Here, use mine."

He handed him the pen and then his hat with a shaking hand. Sonic quickly scrawled his messy signature across the brim before giving it back.

With a star struck gaze, the delivery man placed the hat back on his head, "Thank you so much, sir -I mean, Sonic!"

"What's your name anyway?"

"Aaron," he said.

"Well then, Aaron, how much do I owe you?"

"Your total is twenty rings," he answered, still looking upon him with awe.

Sonic fished into his sock and pulled out the amount plus a tip, "Thanks for the pizza, Aaron, hope to be seeing you around more."

The man pocketed the rings and passed him the food, "Me too! Have a good night, Sonic."

The hedgehog gave one final wave to the grinning man before turning around and kicking the door shut. Looking down, Sonic, smiled at the box. In curvy, red writing the top read, "Woody's Pizzeria."

He and Tails were frequent customers of Woody's. Heck, they were frequent customers of practically every fast food joint in town! Neither of them were much of cooks nor had the patience to spend an hour or more in the kitchen, so the quick convenience of out to eat often presented itself as an irresistible temptation.

Sonic walked further into the living room and looked around. The area was a relatively small size, snuggly accommodating a red, stained up couch, a coffee table that had seen better day, and a custom made super TV Tails had whipped up himself.

Upon seeing no sign of the fox, Sonic called again, "Come on, bro, or I can't guarantee there will be anything left!"

The sound of a door opening and closing resounded followed shortly by Tails emerging from the hallway, "Yeesh, I'm here, already!"

"Yeah, now that I yelled twice, though I suppose it is a miracle that it only took that many reminders to pull you away from your research," he said, placing the pizza down on the table.

"I can't just drop what I'm doing; I have to reach a stopping point," Tails explained, taking a seat.

"Sure you do," Sonic said rolling his eyes, "Anyway, how is studying the emerald coming along?"

Tails flipped open the lid and pulled out a slice, "Well, the chaos emerald gave off an enormous wave of polar frequencies that completely destroyed the quantum electrodynamic processor of my energy matter scale."

Sonic blinked, "The what destroyed the what?"

One would have thought Tails would've learned by now that all that science jargon flew right over his head, but his buddy always got caught up in explanations and would go geeky on him.

"The emerald is so strong it broke my machine trying to measure how powerful it is," Tails said with a hint of smugness.

"Now I got it." He winked, grabbing a piece of pizza for himself. Taking a huge bite, he continued with a mouth full of food, "If your gizmo hadn't broken, then it probably would have read somewhere around power level infinite."

The yellow fox chuckled, "Yeah probably."

Sonic was just about to grab the remote to change the channel when there was a loud crash! The two looked at each other with equally confused faces as more clattering followed.

"My lab!" Tails yelled, dropping the pizza on his lap. Hissing, he brushed off the burning food and abruptly stood before taking off down the hall.

"Tails, hold up," Sonic called after him to no avail. "Oh boy," he muttered, throwing his own slice in the box before jogging after his friend.

At the end of the hall, the workshop's door was open and the speedster ran inside. The place was a mess! All of Tails' tools were strewn about and his machinery lay in pieces on the floor. Scanning the area, Sonic's eyes landed upon a very familiar form, "Knuckles? What the heck are you doing?"

The echidna didn't so much as turn around and instead wrenched the yellow chaos emerald out of a device, breaking the equipment in the process.

Tails rushed up behind the guardian and tugged on his arm, "Stop it!"

That got a reaction out of him. Knuckles spun around with great speed and wrapped a hand around the kit's forearm. Sonic did not have time to react before he brought the limb down against his leg in a single, powerful movement. A loud snap followed by Tails' scream filled the hero's ears and that was all it took to send him into action. Friend or not, he would not allow Knuckles to hurt Tails!

As his bro stumbled backwards cradling his broken arm, Sonic stepped protectively in front of him.

"Alright, Knucklehead, what gives?" he demanded, clenching his fists, "Why would you go and hurt Tails like that! Did Eggman trick you again?"

"Do not interrupt me from my task, mortal, or you will find yourself unable to stand." The voice definitely belonged to Knux, but the words not so much.

"Mortal?" Sonic repeated.

"I found what I have come for; now stay out of my way!"

"Not gonna happen!" he said, curling into a ball and charging forward in a spin dash! Knuckles ducked out of the way as Sonic flew past him. The speedster straightened out and skidded to a halt!

"Sonic, look out!" Tails yelled from the other side of the room.

He turned around just in time for a steel table to collide square into his chest! The force of it lifted him off his feet and sent him crashing into a shelf! As he hit the ground, all the shelf's contents teetered before tumbling on top of him, leaving Sonic buried above his head in junk.

"You cannot stop the inevitable," he heard the guardian sneer right before something shattered.

Grunting, Sonic pushed the tools off of him and quickly looked around the room. Knuckles was gone.

"Where'd he go?" he asked as he stood unsteadily.

"He left out the window." Tails said motioning with his head to the corner.

"We got to go after him." Sonic said and no sooner grabbed his head as a sharp pain stabbed it. When he withdrew his hand the white glove was stained with red.

"He's long gone," Tails panted, the agony his arm was giving him clearly shown on his face "-and we are in no shape to do anything even if we did catch him."

"Speak for yourself, I've got this!"

"Sonic, I don't think –argh!" Tails squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his arm closer to him.

The speedster looked at the broken window, then back at Tails. He knew what he had to do. Knuckles could wait, for now he'd have to get his buddy to the doctor. And…he honestly felt a little worse for wear himself.

"Don't you go too far, Knux. I'll get the bottom of what's the matter with you soon," he mumbled under his breath before speaking louder, "Do you have a splint lying around, bro?"

 **AN: About time I posted a fic for the fandom I have been in love with for over a decade. Anyway, please let me know what you think!**


	2. Scene of the Crime

Sonic walked out of the hospital and stretched, savoring the way the morning sun warmed his fur. Boy did he hate doctors' offices. They were too sterile and mono colored making the place feel drab. And after spending last night there, he was more than glad to breathe in some fresh air.

Turning, he grinned at Tails who followed him out looking less than pleased. His right arm now sported a pale blue sling rendering it useless for the time being. Sonic, on the other hand, only had two bandages, one around his head and the other across his chest.

"How are you holding up, buddy?" Sonic asked with a touch of sympathy.

"You mean other than my lab being completely trashed, Knuckles not acting like himself, and one arm being temporarily out of commission? Fine, I guess."

Scratching the back of his head, he smiled. "Right, loaded question. Anyway, we've got a lot of work to do. Namely figuring out why Knuckles attacked us and was after our chaos emerald."

Tails nodded, "Knuckles definitely seemed off. I know he has attacked us before but never so…viciously. It was almost as if he didn't even recognize us."

"And that whole calling us 'mortals' thing was a bit weird."

"I wonder if-"

A beeping from Sonic's hand cut Tails off. The hedgehog pulled the cuff of his glove up revealing a wrist communicator. Pressing a button, he answered, "Yo, what's up?"

"Sonic, I take it you and Tails aren't back at his place yet," The voice belonged to Amy Rose. When he had informed her of what happened the other night she had been beside herself with anger and worry. Fortunately, at his insistence, she didn't drop by the hospital to pay them a visit.

"Nope, just left the hospital. Why?"

"Well, I was going to drop off a 'get well soon' basket, but noticed you had a few dozen visitors." Sonic and Tails exchanged looks, "You better get back soon."

"We're on our way!" Sonic said ending the transmission before turning towards his bro and nodding. Whoever the visitors were Sonic did not have a good feeling about them. Luckily, Tails' house wasn't too far.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

When the duo reached Tails' place they found the house taped off and surrounded by cars ranging from news vans to G.U.N. vehicles.

"What's the G.U.N. doing here?" Tails asked then turned to look at a group of reporters and cameramen swarming near the house's entrance, "And what are they looking at?"

"Only one way to find out," Sonic said as he marched towards the gathering. Peaking between the crowds, he saw Amy standing in the middle gripping a covered basket as the reporters hovered over her like vultures.

"Miss Rose, what are your thoughts on Knuckles the Echidna stealing from and hospitalizing your friends last night?" a red headed woman asked, ruthlessly shoving a microphone in Amy's face.

"Knuckles and Sonic have had their disagreements, but he hasn't tried to take the emeralds away from him in years!" she said, looking slightly annoyed.

"Do you mean to say he has done something like this before?"

"Once or twice, but that's only because Eggman tricked him into thinking Sonic was bad!" the pink hedgehog explained.

"Eggman? As in the notorious Dr. Eggman?" another reporter pushed.

"Well, of course, is there any other Eggman-?"

"You heard it here first folks!" the red head cut her off to look into the camera, excitement spewing from her every pore. "Knuckles the Echidna is likely working with the known terrorist Dr. Eggman!"

"That's not what I said!" Amy huffed in anger.

Sonic could see Amy was about to lose it with the reporters. He decided he better intervene before the hot tempered girl pulled her piko piko hammer out on them. Giving a quick whistle, he waved and shouted, "Hey Amy!"

Amy tossed her head around until her eyes fell on him, "Sonic!"

Without taking her gaze off him she roughly shoved her way through the reporters, knocking two of them to the ground in the process, "I am so glad to see you!" she said throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing.

Sonic spent a few seconds unable to breathe before he managed to pull her off, "Ngh -same here, Ames."

She then turned to Tails before leaping and giving him a hug, "Of all the stupid things Knuckles has done, this is probably the dumbest!"

"Ow ow, Amy! My arm!" Tails yelped.

She gasped and quickly backed off, "Oh I'm sorry Tails!"

All it took was that minute for the reporters to reform their circle around the trio of heroes. Sonic didn't bother hiding his displeasure as a male walrus rushed to his side, "Here we have someone who needs no introduction! Sonic the Hedgehog, famous for his speed and saving the world on countless occasions, happened to be at this residence when the chaos emerald was stolen! Could you please –ooph!"

The red haired woman knocked the walrus out of the way and crouched down next to the speedster, "Mr. Sonic, could you tell us what exactly happened last night when you confronted the thief?"

Sonic completely ignored her and instead turned towards his friends, "Let's go talk with the G.U.N. and see why they are here."

Tuning out the pleading reporters, the three walked up to the entrance of the house where an armed soldier stood guard, "Halt! No one is allowed in here!"

"But it's my house!" Tails demanded.

The guard examined him for a moment, "You must be Miles Prower," He then scanned over the remaining two, his eyes narrowing as they fell upon the blue blur, "The boss wants to have a chat with you, but first let me examine what's in the basket."

Amy pulled the object closer to her, "Why?"

"To make sure there nothing dangerous inside." He stated squeezing his gun tighter as if she was threatening him. Boy, Sonic had forgotten how much he disliked these government guys. They were so uptight and thought themselves superior to everyone.

Lifting the blanket covering the container, she gestured to the colorful contents, "Unless the calories of sweets are a threat to you, then I don't think I have anything really dangerous in here. Now if you'll excuse us we have a lot to do!"

The man snarled, but stepped aside.

Sonic took the lead as he walked inside. The small living room was filled with G.U.N. soldiers; some were speaking over walkie talkies while a few others seemed to be slacking off and admiring Tails' TV. A particularly brutish looking soldier approached them with a stiff expression on his face. From the looks of his uniform, he was the leader the guard outside had mentioned.

"Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles Prower," the man said with a raised lip as if their very presence disgusted him. "What an honor it is to meet you." He sure didn't sound 'honored' at all.

"Can't say I feel the same," Sonic said crossing his arms. He felt both Amy and Tails glance at him for the rude comment, but he didn't let it bother him. This guy didn't want to deal with them and Sonic didn't want to talk to him, so why hide it with false pleasantries?

The leader grunted in response, "Let me cut to the chase then. My name is Commander Cody and I'm in charge of this squadron. We know that recluse Knuckles the Echidna came down here around 6:28 p.m. last night and retrieved the chaos emerald. You two tried and failed to stop him. What I want to know is why you had a chaos emerald in your possession in the first place?"

"Finders keepers," Sonic replied with a smirk.

The Commander ground his teeth, "Those emeralds are dangerous and should have been handed over to the government! Not been kept by amateurs!"

"I wonder," Amy began, pretending to be thoughtful, "-who has dealt with the chaos emeralds more, G.U.N or Sonic? Oh that's right, it's Sonic!"

"Listen here you little-"

"Well well well, if it isn't Sonic," a flirtatious voice interrupted. The speedster turned to see Rouge sauntering in from the hallway followed by Shadow. "Got a little banged up by that dimwit echidna, Big Blue?"

"Rouge? What are you doing here?" Tails asked in surprise.

"I work for G.U.N. remember, sweetie?" she winked at him, causing the young fox to blush and look away. Finding his reaction amusing, Rouge smiled before turning towards Amy, "I see you're still chasing after hero boy here. Well, if you keep on trying maybe someday he'll be willing to amuse you with a date."

Sonic knew the bat was just trying to get a rise out of Amy and judging by the girl's furious face, it was working. Luckily, before the two could begin brawling, Shadow stepped up to the commander.

"The team is finished excavating the lab," he said as if they weren't even there.

So that's why they were here. They were checking out the scene of the crime. Sonic shifted his focus to Shadow who was cheerful as ever. He found it amusing how the black hedgehog always seemed twice as annoyed when he was around. He supposed the ability to anger Shadow without doing anything was just a natural gift of his.

"Hey, Shads, long time no see."

"Don't call me that," Shadow growled, throwing a glare his way.

Sonic simply chuckled and shrugged.

"It seems like we're done here then," Commander Cody said before barking out to his men, "Alright boys, pack it up, we are heading out!"

All the G.U.N. members began scurrying around gathering what little equipment they had. Shadow grunted and walked away while Rouge stayed right where she was.

Truthfully, he didn't have a problem with the gem-loving bat. Sure she liked to push people's buttons, but he didn't let her get to him. Amy and Tails, on the other hand, got easily flustered by her comments. That's probably why they didn't care for her too much.

"They better not have touched anything in my workshop," Tails said, trying to catch a peak by looking down the hall.

"Don't worry, it's in shambles, just how you left it," Rouge said. Tails did not find the remark humorous.

"Say Rouge, does G.U.N. have any other information on Knuckles?" the blue blur asked.

"That's classified details you're asking for." The bat smirked cocking her hip to the side, "But I suppose it can't hurt to tell you. Early yesterday morning there was a break in at a top secret government building. All the power and backup generators mysteriously shut off and the intruder slipped inside unseen. By the time the guards had reached the location, their chaos emerald was missing and there were large holes in the wall showing brute force had been used to escape. We didn't have any clue who the thief was until we learned that Knuckles broke into Tails' workshop."

"Knuckles isn't the type to be stealthy like that," Amy said shaking her head. "He's the type that would barge in through the front door, not think to shut off back up power."

"I myself find it hard to believe," Rouge agreed. "This is bizarre even for Knuckles."

"So are you part of this case because of Knuckles?" Amy asked slyly. Sonic smirked at the way Rouge's face changed from neutral to shocked to angry in the matter of a second. It was pretty obvious to most people Rouge had a crush on their hot headed friend. Well, obvious to everyone except Knuckles.

"Me worry about that echidna? As if!" she stated looking away, "All I'm worried about is finding those beautiful chaos emeralds."

Denial.

Ready to get on with the day, Sonic turned to his two tailed friend.

"Tails, want to go check out the lab?" he asked, knowing his bro was eagerly awaiting to do so.

"Yeah, I want to assess the damage," he answered solemnly.

"Just try not to get in anyone's way, okay kids?" Rouge said, brushing invisible dirt off of her gloves.

"Gotcha," Sonic said throwing her a thumbs up as he followed after Tails.

When they entered the workshop only three G.U.N. members were left and quietly speaking to each other. Tails looked around at the destruction and sighed. Sonic felt bad for the little dude. Tails had put a lot of hard work into the place and Knuckles had managed to do quite a number on it for the short time he was in here.

Amy came to stand next to the small fox and lightly placed her hand on his shoulder, "I'm so sorry, Tails. This place is a mess."

"But look on the bright side, not everything's broken!" Sonic said picking a square object off the floor, "This toaster looking thing still seems to be in good shape."

"That's because it is a toaster. I was fixing its heating coil," Tails said, the corner if his mouth curving up ever so slightly.

"Oh…" Now he felt silly, but if it made Tails feel a little better than he could deal with it. "W-well what about that entire shelf over there? It remained untouched!"

"That's true," the fox said, perking up even more. "And at least Knuckles didn't attack the garage. I think I would be more upset if he had damaged the Tornado."

"Speaking of Knuckles, what are we going to do about him?" Amy asked.

"I know Knux can be a naïve blockhead sometimes, but there is definitely something else going on," Sonic said scratching at the bandages on his head.

"We don't have much too really go on besides his acting out of character and that he is after the emeralds," Tails said thoughtfully. "If we can track down the chaos emeralds, we have a good chance of running into Knuckles again. Then we can talk to him to learn what's really going on."

"That's as good a plan as any," Sonic said giving Tails a thumbs up.

"Now, let's split up and try to find the Emerald Detector. With it, we'll have a clue of where to look first," Tails said. "I know it's somewhere in here."

The trio spread out, searching every nook and cranny for any sign of the device. Half of the inventions Sonic found he had no clue what they did. At least he knew what the Emerald Detector looked like after using it so many times in the past. After five minutes of searching the speedster was becoming impatient. Maybe that's why it was such a relief when Amy spoke up.

"I found it!" She was sitting on the floor in front of a pile of gadgets that Sonic recognized to be the ones that had fallen off the shelf and hit him last night. Her excited face slowly melted into one of dismay, "Well…what's left of it."

Sonic and Tails jogged over to her and peered at what Amy held out in the palms' of her hands. The circular radar had broken into three parts.

Tails scooped up the remains into his one working hand," Oh no, how are we supposed to find the emeralds now?"

"Can't you just fix it?" Sonic asked.

"In the shape it's in now, it would be easier to build a new one from scratch and that could take weeks! Not only that, but I'd only be able to use one hand, which would make the task next to impossible to complete."

"I'll help you," Amy stated in a matter of fact tone. "You just tell me what to do and we'll be able to rebuild a new one together! You're going to need an extra hand around the house, so planned on staying with you anyway."

"A-amy, you don't have to do-" Tails stuttered.

"Yes I do, because we are friends." She then fixed him with a glare and fiercely said, "We ARE friends aren't we?"

"Wha- of course we are!"

"Then it's settled."

Sonic laughed; glad he wasn't on the receiving end of Amy's concern, "Alright then! While you two get cracking on the Emerald Detector, I'll see if I can find Knux."

Both Amy and Tails remained quiet for a moment, neither looking thrilled by the prospect.

"Sonic I don't think that's such a good idea," Amy said, "I don't like the thought of you taking on Knuckles by yourself."

So much for avoiding Amy's concern.

"Why not, I've fought him before?" he said tapping his foot in irritation.

"I agree with Amy," Tails said. "You have fought Knuckles before, but this time is…different. He's not himself."

"You guys know I can't just wait around, right?"

"I know. That's why I think you should go with Shadow," Amy said folding her arms.

Sonic's mouth raised in disgust. It's not that he hated Shadow; he just strongly disliked the guy. The 'ultimate lifeform' had the 'ultimate' lack of humor and took himself way too seriously. Not only that, but he had a way of taking drastic measures when Sonic saw ulterior paths.

"Me? Go with Shadow? Nu-uh! Now way."

"Come on, Sonic, he's not that bad." Amy said with hands on her hips.

"He's not that good either." At Amy's displeased face he continued, "Look, I know he's not a bad person. He's helped us out more than once. We just don't always see eye to eye with how to handle things."

"But Amy does have a point," Tails said.

"Not you too!" Sonic whined.

"With Shadow's connection to G.U.N. they might have clues to where Knuckles or the emeralds are," the young genius explained.

He begrudgingly admitted they both brought up good points. With his usual wing man injured, he'd need someone else to watch his back. The speedster let out a sigh in defeat, "I guess you two bring up good points. I'll work with Mr. Doom and Gloom at least for a little while. That is if he'll even agree to tag along."

Amy clapped her hands together, "Great! Let's go ask him!"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Shadow stood by the window, watching the scene before him with uninterested eyes. Rouge looked to be flirting with some of the men while other soldiers worked quickly to gather their belongings. He'd rather be waiting outside, but he did not feel like being harassed by those pathetic reporters. He was ready to get on with the mission. They already had an idea of where the echidna was headed next and he planned on leaving when they gave him the clear.

"Eager to get under way, Shadow?" Cody said coming to lean against the wall next to him, "Can't say I blame you. We're the same, you and I. We're both men of action."

Shadow grunted. They were about as similar as he and Sonic. Commander Cody was loud, liked to order people around, and would mindlessly follow anything the government had to say. Shadow was a hedgehog of few words, preferred to work alone, and had his own sense of justice.

"This echidna is abnormally powerful and is going to be a tough one to beat. I heard he can shatter bones with a single punch."

"What are you getting at, Commander?"

"I want you to take Sonic with you."

That was not what he had expected.

"What?" he asked, disagreement apparent in his voice.

"Now hear me out, as much as I loathe that hedgehog and the way he operates, he has proven himself good at what he does," his commander begrudgingly explained. "With you, Rouge, and Sonic on the case, I know you will be able to successfully hunt down and stop that menace."

Shadow did not agree with this what so ever. He could handle the guardian by himself. Rouge would provide more than enough back up, he shouldn't have to babysit the blue nuisance.

"But Listen, Shadow, Sonic has a certain…line he won't cross," Cody explained in a lower voice. "If it comes to ending the echidna for good, that hog is too soft. I don't want him stopping you from doing what you have to. Understand?"

"Fine." He walked off.

 **AN: Thanks to those that have reviewed and/or followed! It's really you guys that let me know whether the stories worth continuing or not.**


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